Actility, the industry leader in low power wide area networking, and
the National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo), Australia’s LoRaWAN network
operator are pleased to announce their partnership to deliver a trial to
test a scalable demand management solution for Ergon Energy. Following a
successful proof of concept, the trial solution being tested in
Townsville, Queensland uses NNNCo’s innovative group multicast
technology coupled with Actility’s ThingPark IoT platform to control hot
water usage at a fine granular level.

“Historically when faced with network constraints energy utilities
upgraded their networks. However that increases infrastructure costs and
places upward pressure on electricity prices. Our approach is to think
outside the square,” explains Ergon Energy’s Sanjeewa Athuraliya,
Telecommunications Architect and winner of the company’s 2015 Innovation
Challenge. “With the trial of this IoT solution,” he adds, “the company
gets the capability to control the load using accurate and timely
information at a granular level. For example, it may change the time
that a household’s hot water is heated up so that it occurs when network
load is low. This could allow Ergon Energy to run its network more
effectively, increase the longevity of the network, and save customers
money over the long-term. “

“The successful implementation of end-to-end Multicast functionality
results in a truly cost effective, robust and scalable two-way network
service that can support remote over-the-air configuration and software
upgrades in addition to group control of endpoint devices.” says NNNCo
Founder & CEO Rob Zagarella. “This opens up additional use cases that
require non real-time monitoring and control capability such as public
lighting, agricultural irrigation, water, Infrastructure and building
automation. Demonstrating this capability in one of the most challenging
environments puts us in pole position for growth across these segments
both in Australia and globally via partnerships with the other LoRa
Alliance™ member operators around the world.”

Ergon Energy has one of the lowest customer densities of any utility
company, resulting in very long distribution lines, making load
variation and management a key issue for the company. The company’s
trial solution, developed with NNNCo and Actility, will enable it to
connect beyond substations to individual household power consumers such
as hot water. Later this month, the company is beginning a 6-month trial
with a small number of households in Townsville, Queensland, where
sensors are being installed on hot water circuits. The LPWA IoT solution
will give Ergon Energy granular control to switch individual loads on
and off so that they can be reduced where needed and in times of peak
power demand without impacting customers.

“NNNCo is working in close partnership with Actility to leverage their
Network Server and IoT Platform which has been successfully deployed by
operators around the world,” adds NNNCo’s Rob Zagarella. “This is
enabling NNNCo to provide a carrier-grade nationwide service to our
enterprise customers. Actility’s global footprint, experience and
leadership position within the LoRa Alliance coupled with local support
has positioned us well for growth in the Australian market.”

“We’re proud to be working with NNNCo and Ergon Energy to deliver this
world-leading trial which tests the use of the IoT to improve energy
efficiency,” says Actility CTO and Founder Olivier Hersent. “We founded
Actility because we were convinced that IoT technology could improve
efficiency and make our economy more sustainable. Equally, NNNCo’s
implementation of end-to-end multi-cast technology will also enable many
new uses cases for LPWA networks, and demonstrates the power of open
standards and a large ecosystem to drive innovation.”

Actility and NNNCo are both members of the LoRa Alliance™, a non-profit
organization and one of the largest and fastest growing alliances in the
technology sector. Its members are closely collaborating and sharing
their experience to promote the LoRaWAN™ protocol as the leading open
global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWA connectivity.

About Actility

Actility is an industry leader in Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN).
ThingPark by Actility offers a carrier-grade IoT platform, with a
growing ecosystem of partners; low-power, long-range wireless networks
for sensors and devices; an operating system and middleware that enables
web applications to connect seamlessly with data from different sensors;
and a B2B e-commerce market featuring tested and approved IoT device,
connectivity, and application partners. Actility is a founding member of
the LoRa Alliance.

NNNCo is an Australian company building a national narrowband network in
Australia for IoT. NNNCo is taking the lead as Australia’s LoRaWAN
operator, building and operating Australia’s Narrowband Network as an
end-to-end scalable service offering over a shared network. The company
has built key relationships to leverage existing utility, network and
other assets to achieve large-scale roll-out and reduce capital costs. www.nnnco.com.au